I hope you are making the most of these wild times! Happy birthday to all you Libras out there! As you may know, we are amidst a Mercury Retrograde while approaching the Aries Full Moon eclipse. The energy around us is shaking things up and some of us are feeling a bit like we are in a Tower situation… one that is mixed with really wonderful prospects as well as many painful realizations.

Hang in there, the energies ease up substantially nexty week. Take this weekend as a true finalization of material from long ago, a bit like a Judgement experience in Tarot terms. Some potentially helpful advice: whatever is bothering you, if something is bothering you, has come to a close. Its time to see it as part of you that needs to be released. Let it go and get ready for your new life to begin fully. We’ve all been through a massive transformation. Take a breath. Give a breath. Let the next chapter begin.

The shipping date of October 1st is unfortunately going to be pushed back until November 1st. In addition to several life situations that have suddenly cropped up taking huge chunks of time out of my work schedule, my hard drive and motherboard both crashed last week at the onset of Mercury Retrograde. Thankfully, its being repaired and I will be back up and running again soon, but its made shipments a bit delayed on all angles, and I have been unable to submit art for the printing of either deck. Paris is a bit delayed in the post-production process as a result of the time loss. I do apologize for the delays and want you to know that it hasn’t been without a fight that this deadline will pass us by.

I am listening to the rhythm of the Universe and accepting that its time for a clean slate and a break from heavy-duty digital work for me for a short time. Both decks are turning out so beautifully- I am VERY much looking forward to shipping them to you soon! We all know how quickly time is flying

I want also to say many thanks again to all of you for your support, interest, patience, kindness and love. The most wonderful facet of being an artist/tarot reader/creative person is sharing my heart and soul with YOU. So thank you for joining me on this indie journey <3

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/09/26/mercury-retrograde-news-along-the-path/feed/0City Mystic Paris Now On Pre Salehttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/09/17/city-mystic-paris-images/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/09/17/city-mystic-paris-images/#respondThu, 17 Sep 2015 23:47:29 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=3133I’m having trouble posting these on the product page so temporarily, here are some of the final images from City Mystic • Paris complete and ready to go to print. Finishing up on final cards and edits in coming weeks! You can pre-order a deck that was funded for print on September 10, 2015 on […]

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/09/17/city-mystic-paris-images/feed/0Daily Dose #4 The Empresshttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/20/dail-dose-4-the-empress/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/20/dail-dose-4-the-empress/#respondThu, 20 Aug 2015 22:36:57 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=3076 Its another day and another image feature! Time is ticking away quickly and as I sat down to manage the City Mystic • Paris Kickstarter campaign today I was reminded of all that went into getting City Mystic • New York off the ground. In true Throwback Thursday fashion, before we look […]

Its another day and another image feature! Time is ticking away quickly and as I sat down to manage the City Mystic • Paris Kickstarter campaign today I was reminded of all that went into getting City Mystic • New York off the ground. In true Throwback Thursday fashion, before we look at the Empress I thought it was a perfect opportunity to honor the essence of the Empress by remembering the very Empress-esque energy that’s gone into bringing the City Mystic project to life… let’s take a short journey through time as we prime our minds and psyches for the message of the Empress today!

Close to my heart- a modeling shoot I did with one of my first photography mentors when I was 18 years old. To have come to the point of crafting City Mystic • new York 13 years later was a special experience for me personally as an artist.

City Mystic • New York at my first gallery show in San Francisco at SF Live Worms Gallery in the heart of Norhtbeach.

Making the first Collector’s copies of City Mystic • New York real.

It was an honor to be shared on the same page as so many wonderful photography projects on Kickstarter with New York.

First boxes of City Mystic • New York commercial copies after successfully funding on Kickstarter in September 2014

First Kickstarter shipments packaged and ready to ship in October 2014.

Landing City Mystic • New York in Namaste Bookshop in Manhattan right down the street from the art piece that became the Magician card in City Mystic • New York was surreal experience this past April 2015.

Meeting fans of City Mystic • New York in NYC at the renowned Reader’s Studio 2015 was the experience of a lifetime.

City Mystic • New York evolved into a Poker deck! Coming October to ginniejester.com

The Empress

Montmartre being the creative center of Paris houses some of the world’s most beautiful and progressive street art. World-famous street artist Akiza, with a gallery close by on Rue Tholozé, has several fascinating images coloring the neighborhood of gritty black and white child-like figures. This one happened to be situated perfectly next to the profile of what could be received as the quintessential modern Parisian woman: sleek, poised, refined, strong and tough enough to brave the city streets each and every day. Another gallery artist from further down Rue Tholozè creates paintings rooted in the broken glass shards still held together delicately in the display window. Sitting atop it all is another face of the Parisian Empress, a sculpture found on the Alexander Bridge by sculptor Gustave Michel. Her name is La France Conteporaine, also know as woman, and she represents the ideal representation of well-to-do ladies of France from the late 1800’s. The Empress of Paris has many faces, but in all of them is a quality of incredible strength, grace, a gentle toughness and refined beauty.

In our personal life narrative the Empress is a representation of our earliest experiences with mothering, nurturing, gentle sustenance and fertility. She is the place-holder for those qualities which we develop within ourselves to consider how our influence can benefit the well being of another life, how we can engage in right action, where we hold the seeds of our soul and how we maintain our vitality. The core nature of the Empress is creativity for the sake of creation, and the lesson of loving and maintaining that creativity as it grows, develops and individuates. No matter our personal experience of mothering or lack thereof, the Empress is a constant expression of that natural human energetic code to nurture our most beloved creations from start to finish and to birth them successfully into the world in physical form.

In readings the Empress is an indicator of our innate creative force. Sometimes we are in need of her influence, others we seem to find ourselves oozing these qualities. Occasionally this card can indicate a time to birth a physical child, however more often it is a physical manifestation close to our hearts that can feel like a beloved “baby” in the form of art, creative ventures and/or nurturing familial relationships. She is our core ‘human’ femininity, taking cues from the High Priestess and making them somatic or tangible. She is a cue to get in touch with our femininity, regardless of whether we are male or female, and to alchemize or otherwise integrate the feminine principle of creative nurturing in whatever we find ourselves reading about.

To contribute and participate please head to the Kickstarter campaign! Only 21 days remain and there is still a lot of money needed to make this next deck a reality. No amount is too small and every single little contribution, share and link helps!

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/20/dail-dose-4-the-empress/feed/0Daily Dose #3 The High Priestesshttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/18/daily-dose-3-the-high-priestess/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/18/daily-dose-3-the-high-priestess/#respondTue, 18 Aug 2015 19:58:51 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=3070I’m back with another Daily Dose! Today we’ll have 2 cards featured so check back for the second post soon! I’m back from an incredibly fun, busy weekend in San Jose, CA. The Bay Area Tarot Symposium was a wonderful experience filled with beautiful connections, new friendships and an ever-expanding path for City Mystic! I’m […]

]]>I’m back with another Daily Dose! Today we’ll have 2 cards featured so check back for the second post soon! I’m back from an incredibly fun, busy weekend in San Jose, CA. The Bay Area Tarot Symposium was a wonderful experience filled with beautiful connections, new friendships and an ever-expanding path for City Mystic! I’m pleased to announce that City Mystic • New York is now carried by Devera Publishing and Distribution and can also be found in the Sacred Well book store in Oakland, CA. Hooray!

Let’s get down to business… Today we move further into our experience of Tarot through the eyes of Paris… and we come to a very special phase along our journey, the High Priestess.

High Priestess

Paris is a city that is steeped in pride and self-celebration. The Hotel DeVille, sitting at the edge of the Marias along side the River Sienne, is the ultimate culmination of this energy. Littered in statues representing heroes of Paris past, the building is crowned with the stern, flowing fertile statue sitting atop the large grand clock in the very center of the building called, simply, Paris. She represents the depth, beauty, fortitude and magick of the very city herself, encompassing the passion of her people. Her majestic qualities are highlighted in combination with a very different architectural structure found in the Montmartre cemetery. It is the door to someone’s final resting place, and it depicts the sStar of David along with four symbols wrapped around representative of the four worlds of the Tree of Life- Atziluth or the world of Archetypes, Briah, or the creative world, Yetzirah, also known as the Astral plane, and Assiah or the Material world. Together these form the elements of the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, material close to the High Priestess’ realm.

In the essence of the Magician our Fool found her purpose, or her potential more to the point. But alas, in order to truly embark on the long journey of self-actualization, she must be fueled with a sense of depth, of greater connection beyond survival. The High Priestess introduces us to the inner Wise One, the part of ourselves that is able to convene with the divine, with the inexplicable, with the unnamable. This is our deepest, most fundamental feminine principle- that of flowing with knowing. The High Priestess is an important mile marker on our journey, an initiation of our inner divinity. With this power we can move worlds.

In readings The High Priestess appears to evoke our inner knowing-ness. We might not have linear answers or ideas, but we are being urged to move in the direction of intuition and intuitive knowing. Trust washes over us. Strength comes from connecting with our personal sense of flow, our personal divine mythology, our higher selves. Some message may have been trying to meet us for some time. When she appears it is a signal to look more deeply into messages which may seem insignificant- those numbers that keep appearing, or that invitation that keeps popping up… there’s something there for us if only we are willing to step out of our linear thinking long enough to make their messages conscious. She is the link to the deep unconscious mind, and as such urges you to trust your spiritual wisdom to carry you down the river of life.

Aptly, today we focus our lens on the Magician. So without further adieu, here she is:

The artist Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) cast a series of nude bronze sculptures placed in the Tuileries, one of which is the Nymph. She is the most playful, most knowing-eyed of the trio nestled within a path of tall shrubs just below the grand palace entry. Josep Pla once said of Maillol, “These archaic ideas, Greek, were the great novelty Maillol brought into the tendency of modern sculpture. What you need to love from the ancients is not the antiquity, it is the sense of permanent, renewed novelty, that is due to the nature and reason.” Combined with this flavor of ancient permanence is the truth and fruit of modern Parisian culture: street art, rebellion, honesty and defiance are the core truths permeating city walls and alley ways. The street art found in this image comes from a small wall space off the beaten path near Rue Lepic, the hotbed of art galleries, wine shops and leading-edge art culture in Paris. Its a small space of wall found right next to a tiny gallery filled with street-art styled clothes and modular sculptures. Together the essence of Parisian magick is almost palpable- whether it be in the inhabiting nature of the Nymph or the truth-telling, core of the modern People, art is truly the grand Magician of Paris.

Along the Fool’s journey comes the experience of manifestation, incarnation, birth even. An essence is made real, or human, and that essence is prime for transformation through life experience. A code of contract may have been created prior to incarnation, but is not until a soul manifests in a body that the true magick of life experience and evolution can begin. The Magician is an experience of a primary conscious symphony between purpose, or core vibration, and physical form, or manifestation. It is the birth of a physicalized potential.

Readings featuring the Magician share nudges that its time to manifest, congeal or otherwise wrap one’s head, heart, spirit and materials around a core idea. All the tools necessary to manifest the idea are at hand. Focus is what is needed to bring something to life. Sometimes this can be a card of stepping into a new manifestation of self. For instance, in the case of artists and writers, The Magician could denote a time to create a specific body of work with a strong core message that is ready to bring to life and eventually share with the world. Its time to write that book, create that piece, congeal that message and make art of your inner motivations. Occasionally this card can serve as a warning: be sure not to buy into falsehoods. A true Magician does not need smoke and mirrors to elicit strong emotional, genuine responses. A true Magician only needs pure authenticity and plenty of focus.

If you’re enjoying these peeks at Paris and Daily Doses and would like to have them in your hands in the form of a deck (the writings are excerpted from the companion book to City Mystic • Paris), please consider contributing to the City Mystic • Paris Kickstarter campaign. Many wonderful, unique perks are available, including limited edition versions of the master Paris deck, stickers, post cards and MAGICK!

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/15/daily-dose-2-the-magician/feed/0City Mystic Paris Daily Dose- The Foolhttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/13/city-mystic-paris-daily-dose-the-fool/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/13/city-mystic-paris-daily-dose-the-fool/#respondThu, 13 Aug 2015 22:15:04 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=3055Hi Friends and Loved Ones! Its another summer and another Kickstarter campaign is upon us! City Mystic • Paris is live on Kickstarter, and this year I’m doing some things a little differently. Rather than bombard you with cards and card info, I’ve decided to give you the daily dose of the deck! We’re beginning […]

Its another summer and another Kickstarter campaign is upon us! City Mystic • Paris is live on Kickstarter, and this year I’m doing some things a little differently. Rather than bombard you with cards and card info, I’ve decided to give you the daily dose of the deck! We’re beginning at the beginning, with The Fool. So without further adieu, let’s take a peek at the history, the phase of development and the meaning of this card in a reading…

The Fool

We begin our journey through Paris with the Fool, the witness, the observer, the one who hops in with both feet. An image of a diving silhouette is captured in a Montmartre gallery window just around the corner from a home Van Goh lived in during his publishing days. The window reflects the beautiful architectural landscape that defines the neighborhood. Known as the Bohemian center of Paris, Montmartre is a neighborhood alive and thriving in art, music and culture. It is the art center of Paris. Another pice of street art, the photographer, captures a shot of the diving figure, joining the composition from another space in Montmartre- at the very top of the hill just behind Sacre Cour. The reflective mid-day surface of the Sienne lends her light and flow to the feeling of the Fool, blending together to create a sense of the wonder of diving in feet-first to Paris, the City of Light.

The Fool’s journey is a path of individuation, or finding one’s true Self. Our Fool begins her excursion by diving in to the alchemical experience Paris holds consciously, knowingly, as a witness to her own adventure. She is the experiencer and witness of her own transformation. Taking her leap into the City of Paris marks the beginning of a tremendously important journey deep into her own soul and its mythos. She is primed for a life-altering experience.

In a reading the Fool announces an initial step in a direction that could well transform the experiencer on deep levels. When we see the Fool in a reading we have the chance to take on any personal transformation consciously, to own its impact and take it on headfirst. We might not feel prepared for the journey that awaits. Nevertheless, we reach an initiation wherein we are asked to jump in feet-first and trust that the waters of life will catch us. Its a card of ultimate trust, and ultimate unknowns. Just be sure to make it conscious or one may run the risk of behaving foolishly rather than awakening the gifts that come from embarking on the Fool’s journey.

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/08/13/city-mystic-paris-daily-dose-the-fool/feed/0City Mystic Spring, Part 3- Revealing the Social Codexhttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/22/city-mystic-spring-part-3-revealing-the-social-codex/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/22/city-mystic-spring-part-3-revealing-the-social-codex/#respondTue, 23 Jun 2015 01:45:26 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=2962Hi friends. I hope you all had a wonderful Father’s Day weekend! I got to spend mine cooking for my dad who always cooks so well for me. It was such a delight to share a special day with him and make him feel a little spoiled. Spending time with my dad got me thinking […]

I got to spend mine cooking for my dad who always cooks so well for me. It was such a delight to share a special day with him and make him feel a little spoiled.

Spending time with my dad got me thinking about the maternal and paternal influences in our lives and how, no matter how much we do to grow, change and evolve, they still remain important core parts of our hearts, minds and values.

That train of thought led me back to City Mystic • Paris in an odd way. Thus far I’ve told you about the very personal influences that have guided me through the process of creating City Mystic • New York, and further into Paris. They were a combination of circumstances and personal disposition. But there is another, major side of my motivation to make these decks which is at once socially inspired, totally impersonal yet paradoxically deeply personal. It comes back to my father.

My dad has always taught me to look deeper at social trends and values. He has always taught me to question the status quo and challenged me to create my own ideas and social rules based on my own sense of integrity. I am incredibly fortunate to have the dad I do. None of me would be what I am without his tremendous influence on my life.

And it is that influence, in a round-about way, which inspired me to share City Mystic with folks the world over. I grew up in the San Francisco bay area. I spent much of my childhood by my dad’s side volunteering in various capacities helping those less fortunate than myself. I grew up marching down Market Street in a myriad of protests over things like worker’s rights, fair pay, peace marches and the like. My dad taught me to not just notice social injustice and incongruence, he taught me to speak up, loudly, about it.

As I grew and healed over the years through various forms of therapy, counseling, holistic healing modalities and continued education, I also worked in the healing arts professionally. This afforded me the opportunity to work with others also committed to creating more authentically lived lives. In that work I noticed many times that certain blockages in people’s healing developments, my own included, had directly to do with their social programming. Its very difficult to help someone live their dreams if they fundamentally believe that they don’t deserve to because they don’t have enough money, aren’t beautiful enough or any other “reason”.

At first I equated this set of blockages to a deep lack of self-trust or confidence. As I continued to learn and grow, however, I noticed that something much greater was at work. There is a set of social codes which often keep a person stuck- relationships, communities, governments… all of these can combine to create a web of blockages which is complicated to untangle; of course we love our families, friends and communities. They bring meaning, joy and love to our lives. But when those hold harmful rules and value systems that block us from being our genuine selves and embracing our authentic strengths and gifts the painful tangles can be enough to stop progress altogether. I wondered for a long time, what can really be done with this? Where do the harmful core values come from?

I ruminated on this observation for a few years, unsure what to do with it. I struggled to find a way to even communicate with clients and colleagues about it in meaningful ways reaching beyond the often frustrating “yeah, this is such an issue, but its everyone’s responsibility to create new beliefs about themselves” rhetoric that many face over this subject. Of course that’s true, but its very difficult to re-build your internal mental framework if you don’t even know what’s there informing it. One can do affirmations until they’re blue in the face to accept new beliefs such as, “I am an unlimited being in an unlimited world.” and be held back for years from progress when this new belief challenges core subconscious programming about how you’re “supposed” to behave socially and what our society says about our sexual expressions, our professional actions and our intimate relationship styles. Its hard to reprogram a part of ones self that is impossible to see and we have no language or common framework for even understanding or perceiving. It was during this confusing time that I visited Paris for the first time, and that was when the I began to understand that the framework for such limiting beliefs is hugely reinforced by the highly visible yet utterly invisible social spells cast upon the masses by way of story telling and mythology which are passed on to us through public spaces, public art and mass media, among other mediums.

I began to research and noticed ways in which certain core myths are subconsciously and consciously reinforced in our human culture the world over about who we are and what we should really be allowed to become. I found that some of those myths are incredibly helpful and create lasting, meaningful benefits in our lives, such as the constant reinforcement of the significance of family and humanitarian care. Others, however, are detrimental to the emergence of the authentic self, often directly tied into those same helpful myths and culturally acceptable stories– such as the core belief that mothers in society should utterly give up their lives and enjoyment for their families. We may think of such ideas as antiquated, but when we look into popular stories in media, public art in major cities around the world, and commonly reinforced values, we see that both the helpful and harmful aspects of this particular cultural value still very much inform our daily lives and the social codes we subconsciously feel we must agree to and also hold each other to.

Finding a way to hold this conversation in meaningful, thought-provoking ways was extremely challenging. It wasn’t until I realized that I could do away with the conversation altogether that I really started to feel inspired to continue exploring this material. Taking the golden-rule concept of writing, “show not tell” into account, the idea of making photographic Tarot decks exhibiting the cultural tales, lore and programs of our most beloved places in the modern western world just felt like it could communicate so much more than any words I might use ever could.

I did tremendous research about social programming, public art, massive cultural upheavals and turning points in history to begin to understand just how powerful and meaningful in direct ways these social programs truly are. What I learned was absolutely astounding. I studied the French Revolution in depth and learned that the Jackabens, the party that eventually overthrew the entire French Monarchy in the late 1700’s, had a firm understanding of the power of public spell-casting. They understood it so well, in fact, that they embarked on a raging campaign to undo all Monochratic programming from the common French experience, up to and including the destruction of public monuments celebrating members of the royal family from centuries past, illegalizing certain manners of addressing one another in every day conversation, certain words and phrases, destroying certain markers of class identification on buildings and housing, and even re-creating their own calendar and striking down the 7-day week in an attempt to erase all religious programming. In my research I found this amazing video and knew I was really onto something with this train of thought.

That time in history marks a potent exchange of understanding and utilization of influence. For the first time in nearly 1700 years at least, a whole new league of social leaders and taste makers had a firm understanding of the almost mystical power of story and social lore which for much time only truly belonged to the extremely wealthy and powerful. This new class of non-royal citizens used that understanding to influence their piers and fellow citizens into a massive, bloody revolution that changed the face of civilization and democracy for ever.

Taking all of this into account I thought, “My best shot at making these unspoken, powerful social codes of conduct conscious and apparent is to make my own intentional art of them and to name them as they strike me.” During the creation of City Mystic • New York I was often surprised by how much my personal impression of specific monuments or public art installations perfectly matched the artist or architects initial intentions without my ever knowing. I made the images first, and then did the research for the companion book. Time and again it happened that the intent of the piece was very closely aligned to what I “read” or received from it. This led me to a long series of questions; “How often does it happen that our subconscious mind has a whole series of internal messages kicked up by visiting our favorite places? How does this series of internalized messages create an energetic buzz or vibration in certain world cities? How do things like geomancy, intentional monument crafting and hidden agendas belonging to certain groups of powerful elite members of society influence our ability to truly pursue our personal sense of potential and purpose in our lives?” To say that this work provoked massive internal questions for me is an underwhelming statement.

Everything looks different to me now that I’ve completed New York and have embarked on Paris. For me, the making of City Mystic decks encompasses so many important facets of empowerment to share with as many people as care to receive them: City Mystic gives me the chance to provide a modern view of Tarot. It gives me the chance to show our real lives in Tarot. It gives me the chance to reveal the core cultural mythos generating our current global culture. It gives those who wish to see it the chance to re-write diseased or distorted social codes, archetypes and stories. It puts the power of influence and art into our own hands and offers people the chance to work with them from a higher perspective, and in some cases, even choose when and where those myths are damaging or hurtful. Think of the power we hold in our finger tips when we engage with something like City Mystic • New York or in the future, City Mystic • Paris. I personally love to think of what these decks say about ourselves, about our social programs, about who we think we are allowed to be at the maximum when we look at the intentional images and commissioned art pieces in these decks. Try it the next time you read for yourself with CMNY. It’ll likely blow your mind!

Where New York was a case of clear-cut intentional influence springing from the center of an interesting melting pot of ideas, capitalistic pursuits and spiritualist endeavors, Paris is a whole new level of social programming spanning two-thousand years-worth of influence, social guidance and, dare I say, cultural control. Its entirely another animal, and one which has inspired me to look more contextually at our stories, codes and shared city vibrations.

So tonight if you happen to read for yourself with the City Mystic • New York deck, or happen to find yourself looking it over, I invite you to challenge yourself to view the images and give them a “social read”. Beyond your personal readings or understanding of Tarot, what do these images and archetypes mean to you, your loved ones and maybe even your clients? What roles do they play in your invisible “ceilings” and limitations as well as your open roads and opportunities? Take it a step further and journal your thoughts. Coming back to them at some later date could well reveal a heap of useful information stored in that precious subconscious mind of yours.

I’ll see you next time for a continued step-by-step re-cap of my time getting to Paris. For now, hopefully, there is plenty to chew on

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/22/city-mystic-spring-part-3-revealing-the-social-codex/feed/0City Mystic Spring, Part 2- The Long Haulhttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/16/city-mystic-spring-part-2-the-long-haul/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/16/city-mystic-spring-part-2-the-long-haul/#respondTue, 16 Jun 2015 23:56:29 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=2945 Last time I told you all about my sad ride down to the pearly gates of SFO, only to be turned down at the door. By that time I was already pretty tattered internally from all the change happening around me and within me. I didn’t tell you, however, about the spiritual urgings […]

Last time I told you all about my sad ride down to the pearly gates of SFO, only to be turned down at the door. By that time I was already pretty tattered internally from all the change happening around me and within me. I didn’t tell you, however, about the spiritual urgings that primed me before that day. Let’s go back to Reader’s Studio for a moment…

After writing my last blog entry I went back and revisited that intention card I told you about. What I wrote was a little different in wording than I thought, yet interesting. My intention for the weekend was to develop “Total self-trust, step fully into myself, completion of self-integration.” Yeah. Much taller order than I even remembered. That’s me though, always looking for the tallest mountain to climb and assuming that no matter what, I can climb it. Leave it to a Capricorn Sun conjunct South Node in the Fifth House…

The thing about Reader’s Studio is that it was good for me, REALLY good for me on a number of levels. Not only did I earn back my costs (which were substantial), get the word out about City Mystic, learn a TON about Tarot, meet my personal Tarot heroine Mary K. Greer (whom I had the tremendous pleasure of being placed next to in the marketplace), make wonderful new friends with many kindred spirits, and get to bring my City Mystic • New York baby home, but I also conquered something within myself that surfaced a long time ago. Something I was not able to reckon with until now.

Let’s take a quick journey further back in time… to when I was 18. I was a hot mess. When I say I was a hot mess I mean that I was a flaming, raging, thrashing burning hot mess. It was a dark time for me. I had given up my dreams of being a fine art photographer to join the droves of lost young women in the booming sex industry of San Francisco. I had every good intention of making art of my sensuality, but I quickly learned the dangers of such a naive pursuit when I entered the world of stripping on my 18th birthday. As with many things in life, the idea and the reality were two vastly different things.

Within a month of stripping I had dropped out of school, moved in with two of my co-workers and become a full time heavy duty cocaine addict. By five months I had all but completely destroyed my life by being arrested with a large amount of drugs in my possession one particularly bad night. An unhappy customer complained to my boss that I would not offer sexual favors, only dances. I was suspended for not making enough money on my shifts… my manager told me I was “too good” of a good girl and needed to start getting creative if I was going to make it as a dancer. My response was to self-destruct with drugs to the brink of overdose. I didn’t care if I lived or died anymore. I didn’t care what happened to me at all. All that mattered was art and drugs. The art I was making became increasingly dark, isolated and difficult to relate to. I couldn’t afford the drugs without the job. The term downward spiral sums it all up nicely.

When I was arrested I was given an option: turn in my drug dealer and work with the police to put him away or go to prison for 5 years on a felony drug possession charge. I chose the former, and for the next two months embarked on a stressful relationship with the San Francisco Presidio Park Police (I was arrested in the Presidio) on building a case against one of the club managers at the time. He was not my drug dealer, but he was involved in a lot of heavy stuff, so I opted to protect my dealer and work with the police on their target. I always felt like a lowlife over the sheer cowardice of my choice to wrongfully accuse the guy. The police made it easier to take on when they told me he had gotten off on a murder charge the year before due to a technicality on their end, and had a long history of extreme violence and drug trafficking behind him. What my conscience still could not live with from there, the drugs helped me to forget.

Like I said, I was a hot mess. When I reflect back on that period of my life now I am amazed that I even made it out alive, let alone free. My plan was to work with the police until his trial and then to move to New York and start my life over. I purchased several books about New York, how to relocate and what one must essentially know in order to make it in the big city. I still have the books. They remind me every time I see them on my bookshelf of just how fortunate I am and what a massive bullet I dodged when the police called me in the middle of the night to tell me they decided to drop the case against the manager and pursue me exclusively instead. I was given three hours to surrender. I chose not to.

The night I received the call was a turning point for me. I did more drugs than I had ever done in one sitting before and then bid farewell to that life forever. The next day I returned to my family home, begged for a chance to start over and move back, and told my dad about all that I had gotten myself into. He graciously let me back in, and from there I rebuilt my life. Soon after detoxing and establishing a clean life I entered massage school, thus embarking on my personal and professional healing journey.

Two years later I was pulled over for a minor traffic violation, and was subsequently arrested for the outstanding bench warrant resulting from my refusal to surrender. Because so much time had passed I was able to make my case in court that I had changed my life by producing my diploma from massage school and proving employment at a respected San Francisco day spa. By the grace of all manner of second chances, the judge dropped the case and the charges. My record was expunged and I was given a clean slate to start my life over in a healthier, better way, both energetically and legally. The word grateful doesn’t even begin to encompass the way I feel about that outcome.

It feels like lifetimes have happened since then, but for me New York always felt like a soul-saving measure that was not to be. It was always that ‘what if things had gone the other way’ road. It was always special and scary to me. So when the opportunity to create City Mystic • New York came in 2014, it felt like a full circle of some kind, an evolved alternative to the option I had created for myself when I was too young and tangled to know better.

And so it seems this adventure of creating City Mystic decks has many, many layers to it- some of them terribly personal, and some greater than the scope of my tiny life could ever encompass. Similar to City Mystic • New York, City Mystic • Paris holds a deeply personal core, one that spans lifetimes.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, it was after Reader’s Studio that things really turned sour between my ex and I. Something about my making it through New York without his help broke an unspoken code between us. Chris has always been my hero in many respects. He came into my life in a very uncertain time when I was letting go of many of the status quo choices I had previously made in an attempt to heal my life from the madness of my youth. Our connection has always been intense, overwhelming even.

After things became unfriendly between us I struggled to find my footing. A wonderfully talented and generous friend, Laura Schofield of Sage House here in Sacramento, offered to gift me with an energy healing session to help me through the storm. Laura is a hugely gifted psychic and healer (I don’t say that about many folks), so when she offered I jumped on the opportunity. In our session together she did tremendous work on balancing and clearing my chakras. While she worked on me I was transported to a different time. I saw myself as a priestess in Ancient Egypt. I wore a robe of gauzy white with a golden hood and golden edges. Everything about the vision was extremely vivd. I saw a bowl of fire in the center of a dark, warm room. I saw a man with a mask on, a bird face mask. I saw myself telling him that times had changed for priestesses. I saw myself pouring my heart out to him, telling him that once I could do my work without fear, but that the world, and man especially, had changed. I saw myself asking him for protection. I saw myself making an agreement and performing a sex magick ritual with him to bind our souls. In exchange for his protection I would lend myself as his personal priestess. And so it would be through time. Through lifetimes.

After the session I felt dizzy, woozy, light headed and deeply changed. Over the years I’ve had many a wonderful energetic healing session, but never anything that even came close to what I experienced that day. It was a challenge for me to honor what had surfaced, but in keeping with my Reader’s Studio intention, I took it as a challenge to truly step into my power and honor the parts of me that the world at large tends to reject. I went home and researched the Bird Mask and ancient Egypt and was stricken when I read about Thoth. “But of course, how could I have forgotten!?!” I thought.

Seshat came first historically, but as times changed, her duties too were displaced. Her priestesses were demoted and replaced by the priests of Thoth in later canonical writings.. Seshat is known as the scribe and record keeper, and as such is associated with Astrology and surveying aspects of architecture, her priestesses assisting pharaohs to build perfectly aligned cities and monuments to work in tandem with the heavens.

It only strikes me now as I reflect on all of this material that a massive intention of making these City Mystic decks stems from a need to reveal the hidden intentional meanings behind urban structures and symbols. The relationships are too deep and close for me to reasonably tell whether or not I am building on a personal mythos or tapping into an energetic core. Perhaps there are notions of both, or maybe neither. Being that we are humans, it is rather hard to definitively say.

For our personal ritual between Chris and I in 2009, we purchased clay. We each created small emblems in the clay for our corresponding dieties- mine that of Seshat, his that of Thoth. Halfway through preparation for the ritual Chris decided that he did not want to continue. I never quite understood why exactly, but was happy to respect his wishes. We never actually completed it. Its always something I have wondered about.

Now, years later in a seemingly unrelated energetic healing ceremony I was integrating this profound past life memory into my personal narrative for what was happening between us, and ultimately, what was dissolving. I thought of the role Chris has played in my life, what I love most about him, what attracts me to him. Indeed it is the qualities I saw in that memory, or vision. It was the protection. It was the intimate partnering of powers. It was a way to deeply honor my greater self in the context of a world which exactly does not honor or value any of it. My mind was blown and I spent several weeks processing what I had learned in that session. I was sad to be processing it alone, rather than sharing such a mystical adventure with my once partner.

The weeks passed, I raised the funds, worked tirelessly with my own natural magick- with fire, with alchemy, with symbolism, with guides and prayers. I practiced my truths, living my truths, sharing my truths. I practiced vulnerability. I practiced relentless honesty. And magickally, much to my own surprise, I was able to connect with other women who feel the powers of magick awakening within themselves as well. I raised the funds and was able to continue on with my work in Paris.

The awful drive happened, and the extremely disappointing denial of flight happened. And that was when more deep soul work happened too.

As I said in my last post, the first thing I did was call my best friend, Marina Shamashevich. She is always such a grounded voice, even when she thinks she isn’t. She’s just entered the professional coaching world and I honestly can’t think of a better suited job for her. I’ve known her since around the time of my second arrest, and through all these many wild years she has been such an important rock for me time and again. When I called her I was beyond upset. I could barely speak. I was in that “what if Chris is going to die” dialogue and I was panicking.

She took me through a process she does with clients to release past agreements and connections which o longer serve us. After were finished I felt immesurably better. I also remembered a past life vision Chris had shared with me once. He said he saw us in the French Revolution. He was fighting and was killed. As my protector, his death meant a life or horrible servitude and suffering for me. I had all but forgotten about it until Marina took me through the process. She and I both remarked on how powerful it was that Paris coincided so deeply with my relationship timeline with Chris. Something about climbing so high in perspective freed up my personal energy to continue on with the necessary tasks to get myself across the world.

I felt I could conquer the challenge ahead of me to replace my passport and get my mystical butt on one of those international flights come hell or high water. She helped me to reclaim my calm, and my sense of power. I decided to make the most of the night and headed to my favorite restaurant in SF for their most affordable meal and glass of wine. I savored each and every bite. I thanked my guides, Marina’s guides and the whole Universe for my lifted spirits. I made friends with a gentleman who owns several restaurants in San Francisco and showed him City Mystic • New York, which he loved. I made friends with another gentleman who inspired me tremendously by telling me about his grandson who was playing soccer in Spain in preparation for college scholarship applications. Meeting folks doing interesting things always inspires me. I was glad for the inspiration.

I headed down the street to my favorite dance party in San Francisco, Motown On Mondays, where I’ve been gifted with so many wonderful connections and friendships over the last two years. At the end of the night I slept in Chris’ car. I had nightmares of being robbed, attacked, preyed upon. More of those old agreements surfaced in my dreams. I let them pass and did my best to rest as much as possible for the difficult day ahead.

In the morning I awoke, drove to Walgreens, got new passport photos, and headed straight for the Passport office. When I arrived I was met with a long line out the door and around the block, but I kept praying. I posted on Facebook and asked my friends, family and supporters of the project to send good vibes that I could get a same-day passport. After making it in to the office eventually, I rode a long wild roller coaster of emotions. I saw numerous people turned down in front of me for same-day passports but I kept praying. I returned to my personal magick. I drew my favorite sigils for success, travel, peace, prosperity, good vibes and smooth sailing on the back of my passport paperwork. I prayed some more.

While I waited I went to the coffee shop next door. As I meandered the cafe looking for a seat I was just about to pull out a chair when I looked down to see what I thought was a giant dead cockroach. I looked again and noticed that it wasn’t a dead cockroach, it was a gigantic dead moth. “What does THAT mean?” I wondered. I found another seat and stared at the moth all through my cup of coffee before returning to the office without any real answer.

By the time my number was called I had all but let go of any hope for a specific outcome. I was tired. I was disheartened, and I still had the matter of booking a new flight to address. Imagine my surprise when the woman told me my new passport would be ready by 3:30 pm! I could have cried with excitement. So much crying in that 24 hour period…

As soon as I got the good news I rushed back to Chris’ car to begin the process of arranging another flight. The roller coaster dipped again. The agent on the phone told me there was no record that I had even been at the airport to attempt to check into my flight the day before, and as such, I would be charged full fare difference totaling $920. My dad generously loaned me $500 to rebook the flight. There was simply no way I was going to be able to afford the additional $420 as that was a little less than I had to eat for the entire trip.

After an hour of negotiating, crying, pleading, bargaining and refusing to accept, I was put on hold for a long wait. I pulled out my page of sigils and prayed while I stared at them. I asked the guides to please be with me. I asked Paris to please assist me. I asked the Universe to please help me. When the agent finally returned to the line she said I could get on that night’s flight at 5:25 pm for a rebooking fee of $210. I told her I wouldn’t get my passport until 3:30, and so I wouldn’t be to the airport until an hour before the flight left. She said as long as I could do that I would be fine. So I booked it, and then I got out of the car and did a happy dance to end all happy dances.

Up, down, up, down the roller coaster went.

But that wasn’t all, oh no, that wasn’t all. So much more still had to go into getting myself to Paris.

I’ll tell you more next time. Until then, take the very best care of your spirit, and thanks for reading.

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/16/city-mystic-spring-part-2-the-long-haul/feed/0City Mystic Spring, Part 1http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/15/city-mystic-spring-part-1/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/15/city-mystic-spring-part-1/#respondTue, 16 Jun 2015 01:14:04 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=2930Its always busy around here. If you check back in often to read the blog you’ll know that. Feels like I start off just about every post with that statement lol. Being a 19-10-1 personality in Tarot (for those who don’t know check out the free birth card calculator from the Tarot School to read more about […]

]]>Its always busy around here. If you check back in often to read the blog you’ll know that. Feels like I start off just about every post with that statement lol. Being a 19-10-1 personality in Tarot (for those who don’t know check out the free birth card calculator from the Tarot School to read more about what they are and calculate your own), I am a Sun, Wheel of Fortune, Magician salad at my core. It seems like all my life no matter how many plans I make, everything is always changing at hyper speed.

That’s one reason its always a little amazing to me when something I intend to create actually makes it to fruition, like City Mystic, for instance. With so much heightened natural flux around me, the only creations that seem to make it to a completion point are creations I’m REALLY committed to. But then again, maybe that’s why I have an all-or-nothing personality… or maybe the change is so dramatic because I have an all-or-nothing personality. Its one of those chicken/egg discussions I suppose.

Taking all of this into account, I am enjoying a moment to reflect back on the last 3 months, which, rest assured, have been WILD, and also to share what’s nearing completion on the horizon. Its juicy stuff! I kicked off the season with a breakup, which has been HARD. Obviously, Chris and I once did everything together. To have embarked on so much magick alone has been an added layer of madness around here…

I wanted to take the time to share my experiences leading up to, commencing and completing the shooting of City Mystic • Paris, my next deck, coming late this Summer to Kickstarter. I wanted to share, because, well, they are the makings of a dramedy that I honestly could not make up myself. So much magick has gone into the creation of this deck… captured in the midst of one of the most intense Mercury Retrogrades most of us have ever experienced.

So do enjoy this multi-part series exploring the often maddening, sometimes heartbreaking, altogether magickal story that is the birth of City Mystic • Paris…

Part 1: Falling Upward

It began with my trip to the Reader’s Studio in NYC (you can see a video blog I did from my hotel room here), which was a deep initiation for me. At the commencement of the convention we did a group ceremony of writing our intentions on a little card and taping a small metal sun charm to the card. My intention was to stand in my own power and inhabit myself fully. I still have it… it sits along side my cards in my City Mystic • New York deck at all times actually.

You know that old cliched saying, “be careful what you wish for”? Yeah. That. I had no idea what I was initiating myself into . SO many nuanced synchronicities, symbols, divine messages and stirrings have been with me through the season that there are simply too many to list, but each one has been an invitation to go further and deeper into that intention, and there’s no letting up in sight.

After New York things really heated up at home, and the break up went from amicable to difficult. At the same time I was gearing up to shoot City Mystic • Paris. The breakup put a real strain on those plans as we had made financial compromises as a couple to make the trip happen. No longer being a couple and not exactly getting along meant I needed to make alternate sleeping arrangements, and FAST on a zero budget.

Thanks to many of you who so generously support the birth of City Mystic • Paris, I was able to raise enough funds on GoFundMe to make the trip happen despite the changes. It was a mountain in and of itself to manifest funding for the trip… but oh how little did I know that those challenges were just the beginning…

The day came to fly across the world, and to say things were awkwardly tense is an understatement. After making a last minute stop to my local camera shop Crhis and I embarked on our journey to Paris. Together but not at all together.I sat for a long car ride alongside my former partner and all the sadness of our shared reality came crashing down on me. For two, long, agonizing hours I thought of all the plans I’d made in my mind about our trip to Paris together before the breakup. I thought about romantic breakfasts on the patio of the private apartment we rented on the cusp of Montmartre. I thought of my fantasy late nights spent setting up my tripod along the Sienne and catching long-exposure shots while snuggling and kissing in the romantic moonlight. I thought of the delicious food and wine, the inside jokes, and the humor of receiving the wrath of the French being two tattooed vagabond-looking Americans. I thought of all the hard moments and how we’d be there together, through it together, supporting each other. And then I thought of none of those things happening. I had been working so hard and been in a constant state of survival since my return from New York that the sadness and emotional overwhelm didn’t hit me until that car ride to the airport. None of those fantasies was to come true now. Things had gone too far, gotten too tangled, become too toxic. There was no recovering the fantasy. My heart broke in a hundred thousand pieces and I was a quiet weepy mess all the way from Sacramento to San Francisco.

I was gearing up to spend 18 hours traveling side-by-side with the very person tied most intimately to my heartbreak. To say the journey looked bleak is an understatement. By the time we reached long term parking I had lost all control of my tears. They wouldn’t stop flowing. Through the long, stranger-infested shuttle bus ride from SFO’s long term parking lot all the way to the International gate, my eyes defiantly soaked my face with tears, despite my constant “don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry” mantra.

Thing is, crying in general is pretty atypical of me, especially this type of crying, and especially this type of crying in public. I was so embarrassed, so sad, so NOT looking forward to Paris, honestly.

And then, like a great big giant rain cloud from the sky, things reached an all out flooding-point when I went to check in for my flight, only to be told I could not be allowed on because my Passport was expired. First my heart broke on the car ride down, then my gut caved like I’d been punched by a heavy weight boxer. The agent informed me that my only hope of rebooking was to first obtain an expedited passport the next day in downtown San Francisco.

So, within minutes I went from a silently crying sad lady to an all-out weeping mess in the airport. I only had about 2 minutes to awkwardly say goodbye to my ex, and haul my heavy bags back to his car in long-term parking. When I got there I lost it. I struggled to understand what could possibly be the meaning of this fiasco. I had literally been looking at my passport for MONTHS thinking it was a great thing we scheduled the trip for Spring, since it was going to expire in Summer. Except I had read the dates wrong for all those months, and it had expired Summer of last year. Ugh.

I was so angry with myself. I was so confused. Then I became afraid that maybe this was my guides protecting me from some sort of terrible disaster. What if my ex was going to die on that plane??? (Did I mention I can be a bit dramatic? ). After leaving the airport, I found a place to park, called my bestie and did some really important past-life releasing work with her which helped me to feel much better. But the hard part had only just begun, although I had no idea. Just a lot of optimism and a ton of energetic support. It would take miracles to get me to Paris in one piece.

More on the past life work, my night in San Francisco and the looooooong road to Paris in Part 2! Stay close!

Thanks for reading, and until next time, take the very best care of your spirit.

]]>http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/06/15/city-mystic-spring-part-1/feed/0City Mystic Tries a Hand at Pokerhttp://www.ginniejester.com/2015/05/12/city-mystic-tries-a-hand-at-poker/
http://www.ginniejester.com/2015/05/12/city-mystic-tries-a-hand-at-poker/#respondTue, 12 May 2015 20:31:10 +0000http://www.ginniejester.com/?p=2904 Hi friends and family! How’s your wily spring going? Bumpy? Action-backed? Full of change? Good. You’re right on track! The Earth is rumbling and lots of movement is being stirred up… we are in GO-mode for sure I’ve been on my own wild ride of shifting and propelling forward which has agitated so […]

How’s your wily spring going? Bumpy? Action-backed? Full of change? Good. You’re right on track! The Earth is rumbling and lots of movement is being stirred up… we are in GO-mode for sure

I’ve been on my own wild ride of shifting and propelling forward which has agitated so much creative juice for me. I am so thankful, and feeling very inspired. I’ve been wanting to tackle a secondary City Mystic • New York project for a while, but the time hasn’t been right until now. While I gear up for City Mystic • Paris (which, its important to mention, really needs YOU to come to fruition! Click to see the GoFundMe campaign going on right now to raise funds for the final push to make the Paris shoot happen! So close!!!) coming Fall this year, I am also going through the images I shot for the original NYC deck and decided I have simply too many beloved images that never had a chance to appear in the Tarot deck. This made me sad, so I said forget that noise, I’m making a second deck, darn it!

And alas, that’s what I’ve been working on! I’m in the process of crafting 12 totally new, never-before seen cards for the next City Mystic • New York Poker Card Deck, and this time they aren’t constrained to the meanings of Tarot… they’re adorning the faces of my first standard Poker deck!!!

While the court cards will remain the same, I’m bringing in some fun new images while staying true to that CMNY core we’ve all come to know and love. The project is still in the early stages and at this time I am nailing down the details such as design layout, original suit symbols, font sizes.. the boring stuff that all comes together to make real magick in the long run.

Stay tuned for new images to leak onto my Facebook page in the next coming weeks as the campaign draws near. I am working with a new printer for this next deck which came highly recommended by my fellow card creator, Robert Place of Alchemical Tarot (among many). While I work on the back end to gather all the necessary images, information and magick, get ready for a totally new, highly accessible take on this already potent project bringing nuance and elemental awareness into our everyday experiences.

I can’t wait to share more with you, but for now, take a peek at the rough draft work in progress that will hopefully be coming to you and your fellow card deck lovers very soon!